Welcome, Bienvenue,歓迎 to Proof Positive. Watch how ordinary people do the astonishing ...

Let's start off with no further palavering...

Watch Greg Mortenson talk about peace and his book  _Three Cups of Tea_

running for peace...

I love this..Gary Vaynerchuk changing the world by telling us to do what we love and STOP doing something that makes us miserable

Hear Ivory Harlow talk about peace and pancakes [courtesy of NPR's This I Know]

What Can One Person Do? 

Watch Sam Davidson, Co-Founder of Cool People Care [right here in Nashville, TN   YAY!]

So, I ask of you...find a video, make a video and send it to me. Spread good news. I thank you for watching.

Note: This pixelated un-conference is inspired by Chris Brogan. If you have anything to say, he shows us how to use social media as the vehicle. Steal this idea! Make it a movement. Thanks Chris! Chris credits Mitch Joel Thanks Mitch!

The following article was written for Kidstuff magazine a year ago.  Not sure if I have 6-year-old and 7-year-old readers out there for this blog, but I'm certain you could use this somehow.  By the way, Math-Tinik came from "matinik", a Filipino slang meaning unusually well-versed.

Be Math-tinik

[How to Do Well in Math for 1^st and 2^nd Graders]

By: Wacks Cagampan

You’re in your early grade school.  And everyone is having trouble with the subject called “Math”.  Well, you don’t have to worry.  Here are some tips on how to make your Math life easy to begin with:

1.    Solve puzzles.  Math is just a bunch of puzzles.  Solve those puzzles at the back of juice drink packs and you’ll be ready for Math in no time.  Have fun!

2.    Sleep early for 8-10hours.  You need to be alert and awake in your Math class.  And remember, no sleeping in class!

3.    Do skip counting.  Do it by 2’s, and then by 3’s, then up to 9’s.  This will help you a lot with the other lessons.

4.    Follow each lesson carefully.  You can’t learn Lesson 2 without knowing Lesson 1 first.  And so on.

5.    Ask questions.  Teachers give the secret formula only to those who ask.  Don’t be afraid of your teachers.  Math teachers even love students who ask questions.

6.    Do all seatworks and homeworks.  If you get used to them, you can ace all math tests with no sweat.

7.    Do homeworks right away.  Do the Math homeworks first before the other homeworks.

8.    Ask Mom and Dad.  Let them help on your math homeworks.

9.    Teach.  If you know the lesson well, teach your classmates during free time.  Learn more while meeting new friends.  And it’s always good to help others.

10. Last but not the least, love Math.  It’s the easiest way to learn it.

[Note to parents: Want to know more on how to guide your kids in Math?  Email pogingwacks@yahoo.com.]

Well, it's because the method used by almost all books, schools and teachers isn't effective.  It's like trying to force a square peg in a round hole.  It just doesn't work!

So what's the solution?  Well, if you've every tried to learn a new language, you already know the solution.  You already know what you need as a student.  The problem is, you have no idea where or how to get what you need!

Well, now you do. This is a problem I've been working on for several years now, and I've approached it completely from the 'stupid' student's perspective.  I have a terrible memory for names or new words in a foreign language.  I can be told a name or the meaning of a new word, and seconds later I will have forgotten.

I've also approached it from the perspective of an engineer seeing a problem, analyzing it, and coming up with a solution.  As such, I was free from any bias or baggage aquired by learning how to teach a foreign language.  Similarly I gained a lot of experience teaching English, but with no bias or baggage about how it should be done.

When teaching English I was typically stuck in a situation using material which was bordering on useless, so I usually tossed it to the side and just started teaching in my own way, my own style; gradually discovering what worked and what didn't.

I eventually decided to make a program for learning Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) based on "what I wish I had had when I was a student".  I also included my general ideas on intuitive learning, 'left logical brain' versus 'right creative brain', etc.  The results were amazing.  The speed at which students learned Indonesian was amazing even for me.

For those of you who don't know, Indonesian is perhaps the easiest language in the world to learn because of it's relatively simple grammar and it's flexibility in word order.  Still, the improvement over other methods and my own learning of Indonesian years before was really quite incredible.

One example in particular was with a Japanese lady who had been living in Indonesia at that time for about 8 months.  She saw me playing with the kids one time and asked me if I could teach her daughter English.  I said sure, I love teaching kids.  She then asked if I could teach her English.  Again, I said I'd be happy to.

We were talking in English and she was often struggling to express herself and sometimes she would use a word in Indonesian when she couldn't think of the word in English.  I asked her if she spoke Indonesian and she replied, "No, I don't like Indonesian."

I was surprised, since it's such an easy language to learn.  Certainly much easier than English.  She was insistent; she didn't like Indonesian and didn't want to learn it; even though she was going to be living there for 5 years!

Okay, no problem, and we arranged a time for her to start learning English.  After her third lesson she said she'd like to try my Indonesian program.  Hehehe.... I guess she saw a big difference in how I was teaching and decided to give it a try.

During the second lesson; just reading the basic dialogues and working on her pronunciation; she started saying, "Ahhh....!!!"  The light was finally coming on.  I also discovered that she had already had 25 private lessons for learning Indonesian!  After 8 months and 25 lessons, she couldn't speak Indonesian and didn't like the language or want to learn it.  Now, during the second lesson with me, she was finally 'getting it'.  She was finally understanding the new language.

All I could do was laugh.  It's sad but funny.  To have had so much difficulty, and now to find it so easy.

Square peg, round hole.  If you give the student a round peg they won't have any more problems trying to put it in the hole.

If you like to see more of our material for learning Indonesian, please visit our websites: BintangBahasa.com and LearnIndonesian dot org. (Don't know why the link wouldn't work with .org)

And selamat belajar!  (Best of luck learning!)

Brian

5plus5team.com

             The interesting thought I came up with was that the children are not trusted to behave nicely when there isn't an adult around. 

            In Japan the students are often left alone to do work, or to play, and no one seems to really worry.  There aren't lunch duties to watch the students as they eat, or play outside.  Maybe that is because often the teachers (me included) would go outside and play with them, and sometimes they didn't, and the students played with no supervision.  Often the Teachers' office had an outside door that opened to the play ground area, not that the teachers watched from the doorway.  But really they never had need of a teacher or adult to watch them during free time. Sometimes I would get to a class a few minuets early and the students would be working, and the teacher would be gone.

          If that happened in America the students, for the most part would not be working, but would be talking or playing in the class room.  So, thinking of why this would be I think,  if teachers started trusting the students more, I wonder then if there would be a different attitude in the classrooms, and a different attitude about school in general.........

         But then maybe it wouldn't make much of a difference because society as a whole would have to change, and not only teachers but parents and general people would have to trust children, and I think that would be hard for some people.  I think we should give children more of a chance.  Their pretty smart in their own way.

Ezr 7:10
For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments.        KJV

Every time I come across this verse of Scripture, I am moved with fear and a new determination.

Have I prepared my heart? Do I seek the law of the Lord? Am I doing what He requires of me? Am I teaching that which He desires for His people?

These are challenging questions for me.

The most critical part of this verse is the third thing Ezra wanted to do: to do it. He wanted to DO the law of the Lord.

It is one thing to do a sermon. It is quite another to BE one.

When people look at me, I want them to not only see Jesus. I want them to also see how the Lord wants them to live.

Is my life--every aspect of my life--a model of what it means to follow the Lord with my whole heart?

When someone sees me in the grocery store, are they able to see how Jesus would handle the long line, or the incompetent clerk, or the screaming child?

Often times the answer is no.

But, God is merciful. He brings this passage once again to my awareness, and challenges me to prepare my heart more thoroughly, to be more diligent in my personal application of His truth to my life.

Then--and only then--will I have something meaningful to share with those who look to me for guidance on the path in this life.

Mt 5:1,2 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them, saying….

There was a time in Israel's history when, “Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Jud 21:25). It was a day when they had judges to rule over them but there was no one to take a teaching lead, and as a result everyone just did what they felt like doing. In this pluralistic age in which we live, the lie has been sown that no one has the right to say what is right and wrong, and indeed anything and everything is right. It perhaps comes as a shock for some, therefore, when they come to Christ to find that he wants to bring about a change in mindset by teaching them specific things.

Now in the verses above there are three sets of people to be noted. First of all there were “the crowds” and they are distinguished from “his disciples”. The crowds were simply people who had heard about Jesus and came along to hear what he might say. They were interested and no more. Perhaps that is you. You have come across these meditations and wondered about Jesus and thought you'd read along to see what it was about. It's great that you're here. We hope you'll find them both helpful and challenging.

Next there were “his disciples” and this probably refers to the twelve who now travelled with Jesus. ‘Disciple' really just means a learner. A disciple or follower of Jesus is first and foremost a learner. Again and again in the Gospels we find Jesus teaching (e.g. Mk 1:21, 2:13, 4:1, 6:2, 8:31). Very simply teaching is the imparting of information and understanding to bring about a change in knowledge and outlook. If you are a Christian, you are a disciple. Before we knew Christ we had lots of wrong ideas.

When we came to Christ the Bible suddenly opened up to us and Jesus started teaching us by his Holy Spirit, so that our minds and our ways of thinking are changed. We start to learn things about God and about ourselves that we hadn't ever realized before. We are taught that there is a new way to live which is quite different from the way we had lived before we knew Christ. Disciples are those who are committed to Jesus and committed to let him teach them so that they not only have a change in life when they come to God through Christ, but it is an ongoing change that is brought about as he teaches us and a new way is opened up before us.

Of course the final person to be noted is Jesus himself. As God’s Son he has God's wisdom and he imparts that to whoever will come to him. Jesus is a teacher and wherever crowds came to him, the first thing he sought to do was bring them the knowledge of God's love and the life they could be enabled to live.

In the following verses we will find it is highly challenging and we soon come to realize that we can only live this life with God’s enabling. The Christian life is all about living the life He’s designed us to live, with His help! Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom or rule of God (4:23) and he starts out with these beatitudes (beatitude = blessedness), showing what real happiness is. The way for real happiness is very different from what the world may advocate. We will now consider these eight "If you are this.... then this will cause you to be blessed" sayings. These are Christian fundamentals which apply to everyone.

I heard myself and smiled.  I looked around the table; some of them were smiling, too.

"I mean," I said, "Make sure you read the lab manual carefully and digest the information in it. Please don't actually eat it."

The mind works associatively.  My verb/object error opened an unlikely file drawer in my head, one that contains moments from NBC's 30 Rock.  Deciding to digress -- and I rarely exploit my students as audience, but this time I did -- I told them where my internal attention had landed.

"Did anyone see that 30 Rock episode where Jenna is on the Japanese paper diet?"

I looked around.  They waited; they smiled; no one said anything.  I continued.

"Jenna is one of the stars of a television comedy show, and she's trying to lose weight.  All she eats is paper.  In the show it's called the Japanese paper diet." I paused.  "And so, after I told you to eat the lab manual, I pictured you all eating paper and thought of this."

Students laughed.  It was so nice of them.

Later, in the van with Jimmy and the two girls, I share the classroom anecdote.  From the way back, Lydia hoots.  "Mom, it's not called the Japanese paper diet!  It's called the Japanese porn star diet!" Lydia, who also watches the show, is correct.

Oh, god.  I always meddle, unconsciously, with gags, stories, and jokes, and get them wrong.  My own twists make sense to me, but not usually to anyone else.

In this case, however, I'm so glad I misremembered the diet's name (although I did remember the gist of the joke: Jenna was eating all the paper she wanted).  There are some things you can say to your students, and some you cannot.  To mention a porn star diet in a science writing class, in any class??  Totally inappropriate.  A paper diet, though?  Just quirky, I hope.

Jesus travels to the Lake of Gennesaret (also know as the Sea of Galilee) and decides to jump into one of Simon's boats and asks to be put out into the water. Once settled in the boat and away from shore he "teaches" to a crowd of people. After teaching, he performs a remarkable miracle.

As he finishes he asks Simon, a pro-fisherman by trade, to go out and drop the nets. Can you imagine the initial reaction from Simon? I'm sure the reaction would be like me telling a rocket engineer how to build the next spaceship. But what is important is that Simon, knowing who Jesus really is, obeys him and the result of his obedience is a boat load of fish. So much fish, in fact, that the boat began to sink and he needs help from the others.

The thing that I learn from this passage is that no matter how much I know or am educated about something, I still need to obey Jesus. There are things that Jesus tells us to do that may be completely illogical or beyond reasoning (our reasoning), as in Simon's case, but we must still obey him. Simon was tired from a long night of fishing and wasn't very motivated. But because he obeyed Jesus request, he was blessed beyond his imagination. 

What makes this story even more amazing is that after all this happened, after Simon first-hand saw what the power of Christ can produce, dropped everything including his career and followed Jesus. He just parked the boats and left with Jesus... no questions asked. 

How do we react when Jesus asks us to do something? I'd like to hear from you and know more of your reactions about this passage and what it means to you.

What does this passage say to you?

This blog is only as good as the comments that are shared. I claim that I am not a pastor by any measure, rather someone who wants to learn and share the bible with others (I’m more like the Tim Taylor of the bible for those who are “Home Improvement fans.. you have been warned). What will make this study strong are the “constructive” comments others share each day as they read this. What the bible says to me may be different to you depending on your journey. So I encourage you to share how this passage speaks to you.

Do you know Jesus?

DanceCrazy.com Offers two terrific Dance Workout / Pilate videos for you. DanceCrazy Dance Workout video is a fun, effective video that incorporates salsa dancing with workout. Its a great chance to lose weight and learn to dance at the same time! Our Pilate exercises video is equally good. Filled with tons of great stretches and instruction that will guide you to lose weight as well as fix your posture and much more!

We've got a great dance workout video and a really effective pilates dvd for you! Get in shape, and fix your posture through pilates exercise! This video breaks everything down into a strong, easy to follow explanation of the pilates method. But don't forget to check out our dance workouts video. This video will teach you salsa while you are burning calories at the same time.

With this problem in mind, Dancecrazy.com have worked hard to apply the same quality teaching method to all of the ballroom dances. They found the best teachers, got some great music, and structured a whole system of Ballroom Dance DVDs.

This system, unlike any other in the market, is a complete step-by-step tutorial for absolutely any style of dance that is specifically geared toward the beginner.

The Ballroom Mastery System is here...

Dancecrazy.com worked tirelessly to make sure that every move was broken down in the clearest way possible, and fun to learn! With this system, you will never have to stop dancing, and you'll be the star of the party for every style of dance!

When I say this system will make you confident, I mean CONFIDENT. Dominate the floor with Swing, Rumba, Foxtrot, and the Waltz and more...

tg-its almost-f. a solid week this week: pshe, emas, double maths, meeting my mentor, ar&r, preparation for first practice and geography.  i've had a series of connection problems this week and haven't been able to post much. my bad.

pshe

thats personal social health education. it was with a dude called david and once again i walk in on a monday morning and the chairs are arranged in a big circle. joy. i could almost smell the 'team building'. i wasn't able to make any notes/quotes because of said circle, but it was mostly about feelings, why do you feel that way, what other people are feeling and how children feel. parts were interesting but mostly lame. the first 'game' involved us writing our name on a piece of paper in the middle of the room and saying something about our names "my name's james, my mum calls me jamie, my dad/brother call me jim" x 24. other games involved a lame musical chairs thing and something about winking and switching places. the lesson didn't really have a point, we're supposed to be learning about how to teach kids in primary school sex ed, drug use, about not becoming obese and so on. thats next time he said. we did find out stats about how lame portsmouth is - for example - in year 6 (that's about 10yr olds) 71% of children drank alcohol 'sometimes or often'. hmmm.

emas

ethnic minority achievement service i think. it was cool. we went to another school and spent the afternoon working on a wall display in a specialist language unit. our group had poland, others had bangladesh, china and iraq. it was things like getting information on the religious background of a child from that place and what might we need to know as teachers about the child's culture. at the end we gave a presentation and i spoke for a while about polish history - very interesting stuff. we were also told that there are about 70 different languages being spoken by children in portsmouth. nice.

maths all day tuesday.

in the morning was it vicki which was good. she lets us play games & work out mental/oral starters for classes (a fun warm up before the main lesson begins basically). i'm getting a better understanding of how the primary framework for maths fits in and how to plan/teach a good maths lesson. one of the activities was working out a game around a curriculum objective - ours was something about numbers and that addition is the same if you switch the numbers around.

the afternoon was okay, but adrian isn't a very good teacher. he wasn't able to control us and most of the time people were just chatting and he was still talking. i'll go into that a bit more another time. he was trying to teach us about the different ways to do multiplication/division but some people were clearly struggling and were interrupting all the time. he gave us a scheme of work to do - a weeks worth of maths lessons planned out and we had to look them over, see what works/what doesn't etc. we got our results back from the early test and although i didn't do great - i don't have to attend the 'booster sessions' (read: tards. or as my brother said 'i moved here from canada and they think i'm a little slow, eh' class).

meeting my mentor.

we had known this was coming and the morning was held in a giant hall. the mentors came in and sat on one side, us the other. the best way i can describe it is a combination of meeting your french/german exchange student for the first time ("i think that one's mine") and a massive parents evening. we were being paired up and when my name was called and i raised my hand i was informed my mentor was changing a flat tyre. laughter. good start i thought. after a few minutes she came back and we met and chatted briefly. we then took part in a group exercise that involved putting pieces of paper into categories (a good teacher reads national curriculum and local policy to x - goes in the 'developing skills' pile etc). my mentor, victoria, was as lazy as i wanted to be and sat cheek-in-palm on the table tapping the category she thought the thing should go in. i liked her immediately. after all that we got to chatting properly and she told me about the school. i am one lucky motherfucker. its a school of 60 infants, surrounded by grounds and in my class i have 18 kids. there's a permanent t/a (teachers assistant) and i can wear smart casual. we're using promethean boards (mentioned a couple of weeks back) and i'm the envy of most other students who have 30 kids to deal with. i asked if there were any foreign language kids so i could learn a few phrases, her reply "we had a german last year". bingo.

a r & r

most of that day was with shit sandwich so i put on my semi-interested face and doodled mostly, occassionally pulling out the laptop to download something. i can't even remember what ar&r stands for but its about our evaluation and assessment of our lessons, what makes a good lesson, keeping a good folder of work, when we get formally observed in school etc. it was pretty obvious stuff but mostly caused moans/groans from the room complaining about all the paperwork we're going to have to do. we're becoming teachers so i'm not sure why they were shocked.

preparing for our first practice.

the geography woman got her time wrong so it turned out to be an ad hoc lesson from malcolm about whats expected of us in the next year. good stuff. more about record of professional development, school files the specific tasks we have to complete before the end of the year (little things like attending breakfast club, taking the register, playground duty etc). all makes sense to me. i'm looking forward to getting back to school and literally teaching these kids a lesson they'll never forget. at the end we spent some time talking about what to do if your first lesson is a disaster etc. it was basically half an hour of people saying "get back on the horse", "learn from your mistakes" etc. for your information, we've been told that lessons normally go wrong because: content is not right and it didn't interest the children. you pitched it wrong, either too easy or too hard. finally you mismanaged your resources, ie not enough, not appropriate etc.

geography

an odd lady called amanda. imagine being lectured by someone in a small room who never looked anyone in the eye - it was as if she was teaching an invisible class a few feet above our heads. we all noticed it and it was kind of off putting. she constantly said geography/maps etc were "awesome/amazing" and had some of the worst clip art i've ever seen used in a powerpoint presentation. she pulled out things from a bag (orange, sunscreen, banana) and asked 'where am i' in a terrible attempt to show "how global our lives actually are". there were about 10 items so you could see this thing coming from a mile off. she kept talking and despite her upbeat demeanour said some strange things. showing us how to tie in geography to other subjects, she asked us to shout out songs that might be related to geography, "new york, new york" etc - amanda's first suggestion? "its raining men (hallelujah)". there were bite marks in the back of my hand. to finish she talked about how geography isn't a core subject so doesn't get taught as much anymore and gave us a quote from ofsted: "inspection evidence reveals that geography is the worst taught subject in the primary school curriculum". nice job. however, she did let us out at 3.15pm - so she wasn't all bad.

and its science all day tomorrow with ron. suh-weet.

I have long stated that a characters name is just as important as what he does. Most people think of a plot first when conceiving a story, but when I am in the beginning I start with a who not a what. I find it is more thrilling to start by putting down one line that the character would say in conversation and then branching from that. To me it is much like painting a picture when I write. I design a character by usign what they say to develop how they would say it. I say the line over and over again (sometimes out loud) and move differently as I say it until I find how it should feel, much like putting together a puzzle. You know that all the pieces are there, you just need to find how they fit together. After that I start to think about how they dress, cut their hair, all the way down to what kind of shoes they wear. Its a very in depth process that takes anywhere from hours to weeks, depending on how inclusive they will be in the story I am writing. After I have assembled the doll (as I have taken to calling them) in my head I begin to work out a various grouping of scenes, normally starting with a restaurant. It is a good mid-level staging ground for most interactions and depending on things as simple as "How often does the character come here?" to "Who is the owner of the establishment?" I can setup a faux situation where I work through what the character would sound like when interacting.

Depending on how that goes I change the scene. Try them in a church, at a park, at a movie, at the opera, in a drug deal, in a bar brawl, in a penthouse apartment, or in the dressing room of the head showgirl at the Bellagio. There are an infinite amount of options to choose from, all that matters is how well they mesh on the first try. I won't bore you with my entire process today. I may break it down further later, but there are many more things I throw together to create the wonderous brain images I do. I only wish that my artistic talent didn't stop at writing. I wish I could find an artist that could bring my work to life.

Oh well, in a mirror world I'm sure I could complain that the water I needed to breathe was making the paint run off my canvas. ^_^

-M

Conventional wisdom says:

"Experience makes the difference." Managers who place a special emphasis on experience pay closest attention to a candidate's work history. They pore over each person's résumé, rating the companies who employed him and the kind of work he performed. They see his past as a window to his future.

"Brainpower makes the difference." These managers put their faith in raw intelligence. They say that as long as you are smart, most roles can be "figured out." Smart people simply "figure it out" better than the rest. When selecting people, they tend to favor articulate applicants blessed with high-powered academic records. -

'Willpower makes the difference." This is the "Success is 10 percent inspiration, 90 percent perspiration" school of thought. Managers from this school believe that the technical part of most roles can be taught, whereas the desire to achieve, to persist in the face of obstacles, cannot. When selecting people, they look for past evidence of grit.

As far as it goes, great managers would agree with all of this advice— experience can teach valuable lessons; intelligence is a boon; and willpower—which great managers actually label a talent—is almost impossible to teach. But conventional wisdom stops there. It fails to take into account that there are so many other kinds of talents and that the right talents, more than experience, more than brainpower, and more than willpower alone, are the prerequisites for excellence in all roles— talents such as a waiter's ability to form opinions, empathy in nurses, assertiveness in salespeople, or, in managers, the ability to individualize.

Conventional wisdom assumes either that these behaviors can be trained after the person has been hired or that these characteristics are _relatively unimportant to performance on the job.

Both assumptions are false. First, you cannot teach talent. You cannot teach someone to form strong opinions, to feel the emotions of others, to revel in confrontation, or to pick up on the subtle differences in how best to manage each person. You have to select for talents like these.

Second, talents like these prove to be the driving force behind an individual's job performance. It's not that experience, brainpower, and willpower are unimportant. It's just that an employee's full complement of talents—what drives her, how she thinks, how she builds relationships—is more important.

No matter how carefully you select for experience, brainpower, or willpower, you still end up with a range in performance. All store managers faced the same conditions and were provided the same training, yet some were 15 percent over their P/L budget and some were 30 percent below.

In a large telecommunications company, the lower-performing customer service representatives take three times as many calls as the best reps to resolve the same customer complaint—and since millions of customers call in each year, and each call costs the company $10, this range in performance rightly gets management's attention.

Similarly, a nationwide trucking company reports that their average drivers cover 125,000 miles per year and suffer four accidents per year—yet one of their best drivers has just celebrated his four millionth mile of accident-free driving.

There is range in every role, no matter how simple it seems. While experience, brainpower, and willpower Q11 affect performance significantly, only the presence of the right talents—recurring patterns of behavior that fit the role—can account for this range in performance. Only the presence of talents can explain why, all other factors being equal, some people excel in the role and some struggle.

Let's take an extreme example where candidates were carefully selected for experience, brainpower, and willpower. They were expertly trained, and yet they still performed very differently from one another.

Brigadier General Don Flickinger faced one of the more daunting management challenges in history. He had to find and train seven men to perform an extremely difficult role. No one had ever performed this role before, and each man would have the opportunity to do it only once. The stakes were very high. Succeed in their role, and these men would restore America's faith in America. Fail, and they would add fuel to the Eastern bloc's swelling self-confidence.

As any manager would, the general spent a great deal of time and energy trying to find the right men for the job. First he laid out his minimum criteria: They had to be no older than thirty-nine, no taller than five feet eleven, in excellent physical condition, and graduates of a military test-pilot school, with at least 1,500 hours of flying experience in jets.

It has been a long time since I last posted something here. The  good thing is that I can blame it on so many things like the shi**y internet connection out at our hostel, or that the mid-sems this time went on for more than  a fortnight or that just after the mid-sems came TechnIEEk 2008 that made me so busy that I had barely enough time to look at my room! But dont worry am back now!

Yeah, long time no see, so lets update a bit!

First up were the mid-sems. They weren't the only thing that troubled me at that time rather they were the lesser ones. The serial bomb-blasts at Bengaluru, then Ahmedabad and then Delhi happened and left the country shocked! I mean what the hell these Indian Mujahiddeen as they call themselves want? Killing innocent people as if they are swatting flies, who gave them this liberty? What the hell is the government doing?

Then came TechnIEEk which made me realise the meaning of responsibility in a yet another level and even taught me a lot of things. As for example, it indeed told me how to reach the press and get things done in an efficient manner. Moreover, it got me one friend while it cost me another. Ha! I saw myself in a new light, one in which I never imagined myself to be! I simply loved it!

But the light of TechnIEEk was accompanied with the sudden crashes of big-shot companies and the stock-markets worldwide. I don't know much about this subject, but all I know is that the top investment-banks invested too much in the housing sector without giving it much of a thought, and the result was their bankruptcy. Houses made of hundreds of thousands of dollars are not being able to be sold off at a few thousand. Its a mess, the world economy at this time. I know its bad, but I couldn't care less, I don't know why!!

]]> http://loubird.wordpress.com/?p=101 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:29:15 +0000 loubird http://loubird.ar.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/molded/ When I was a student
I grasped the grass,
observed all the slow steps,
holding slides to the sunlight.
I was an explorer in the Congo
and the jungle was breathing,
but as time passed, creepers
atrophied to ashes
roots became foundations;
grasping tree trunks
my nails broke on concrete

1. Have fun. Attitude is everything with home learning. Enjoy learning and your kids will enjoy it. Make it drudgery and they will respond as well. Try to make even boring tasks, pleasant at least. This is not to say that everything must be a 3-ring circus, but if you have a fresh, upbeat attitude even with times tables and spelling tests, this will reflect well on your children's enjoyment and learning potential.

2. Limit interruptions. My biggest interruption is the phone. Get a good answering machine and use it during regularly scheduled learning time. Or use voice mail. Record a message that states from this time to that time we are home educating and will get back to you after we are finished. Tell friends and relatives that this is the case, and eventually they will learn to respect this. This also means well meaning drop in visits and babysitting for friends, etc. Keep your children's learning time sacred and your family will benefit from this.

3. Dedicate your time to their learning. If you are doing 101 things while your children are trying to do bookwork, how can you expect them to concentrate and finish tasks at hand? Keep your focus on them, it is a priority that rewards!

4. Keep it simple. Be careful not to fall into the "Curriculum of the Month" club. Trying and swapping and changing your education plans with every new program that breezes by will kill your children's spirit. This is not to say that you should stay with something that is not working, just be careful not to flit about like a butterfly in a field of flowers. Your children will quickly learn that all it takes in a bit of whining and they'll have a new book, workbook or system in no time. Also, simplify your life. Too many commitments and outside activities and responsibilities can really wreck havoc with your schedule. Try to keep your life simple and you will be rewarded.

5. Have FAITH! In yourself, your kids and in God. If you are doing the best you can, you will be rewarded. How can you do any worse than an overworked, underpaid public school teacher with only 6 hours and 24 - 30 children to teach? Overcome your own shortcomings with help, tutoring assistance and your own re-education. Don't count yourself short. Children learn in any environment even the slums of Calcutta! Provide them with your time and enthusiasm, good basic materials and faith and you will do as well if not better than that poor teacher can. You have the best interest of your children in your heart. Let it work for them.

6. When in doubt READ! If the washing machine is flooding, the baby is sick, your toddler is fussy and lunch is burning don't just give up, get reading. Reading is the best way for your kids to learn and retain. Gather up the brood and snuggle on the couch with a good classic. Reading aloud is a wonderful activity for your family. Even experienced readers will love to hear a story aloud, especially when they don't have to sound out each word and get through those they may not know. There is a rhyme and rhythm to books read aloud that delights even little ones. Make it a drama performance, use voices change the sound levels of your voice, and discuss the plot. You can even tape record your story time so that pre-readers can listen again and again and enjoy the story while you worry about that washing machine!

7. Surround yourself with home school mentors. Whether it's an online group, or a support group, or just a great mom you met at church or at the library, keep in touch with these people! Ask questions; ask for helpful advice, most likely, they will be happy to help, because someone in their life helped them. Don't do this alone. Even a good home education magazine will help you in your quest. Read home education books when you are in need of a little boost.

8. Use the Library! What a wonderful resource most public libraries are. Not only books of any and every subject but reference books, video tapes, audio tapes, learning materials, computer accesses, computer software and so much more. With just a notebook and some pencils, I truly believe you could educate your children with just a library at hand! Don't spend a fortune on all these reference books for home. Use the libraries! And the librarians love homeschoolers

9. Take frequent break days. If you are sick, or some family obligations make a day difficult, take a day off. Instead of great big weeks off or even the whole summer, take frequent days off through the year to refresh and empower you. The children will be pleased and you will get a chance to regroup. Just make sure they aren't every other day!

10. Watch for outside time stealers! Field trips and social outings and classes for this and that are important, just make sure you are not overdoing it. Too many errands and outings can kill a day's learning and overwhelm your schedule. Remember that you are home schooling not car schooling! Try and schedule a day that is busy and three or four days that are not. Your family will appreciate this!

The sacred rituals are held at the Chinese shrine in the center of Thai Mueang. The “Ma Song” are the people performing these rituals, nine out of ten are men. The rituals include walking on hot coal, long spears pierced through the cheeks, and smaller spears pierced through other parts of the body. Twice during the festival there will be parades through town with the “Ma Song’s” carrying huge chairs with a sculpture of a god on it. They walk through town and stop in front of shops and houses where a table with various fruit and tea is displayed. The house and the people are blessed by one of the “Ma Song’s” hoping that nothing bad will come to the house or the people. A huge band of fire crackers is then lit and dragged under the chair and among the carriers chasing away evil spirits. This is an impressive sight and I am surprised every year that no one is harmed.

Rules for people attending the festival:

• · Keep your body clean at all times during the festival
• · Wear white during the festival
• · Show good behavior both physically and mentally
• · No killing of animals
• · One cannot eat meat or vegetables with an odor
• · No sex
• · No alcohol
• · Grieving people should not attend the festival
• · Pregnant women should not watch any rituals
• · Women having their period should not attend any rituals

Throughout the festival fireworks and drums are sounded, especially during ceremonies. It is said that the louder they are the better, because the noise drives away evil spirits. The festival ends with merit making ceremonies at the shrine and the send-off of the gods on the last night.

So for me here at Thai Mueang Volunteers it is ten days without meat and vegetables with an odor, like garlic, one must not grave food during the festival so most of the food is quite tasteless.
Last year I lost about four kilograms during the festival even though I ate five times a day.
This year I will eat six times a day.

Of new volunteers, we have David from Scotland who should be on his way in mid-October, and Eileen who is American but lives in Germany is coming in mid-November. We are very much looking forward to seeing both of you here in Thai Mueang.

Smiles

Anders

Our eyes are attracted to colorful things.  Color gives life to paintings, drawings, photographs and television.  If everything were in black and white there wouldn’t be much to characterize what we see.  Here are five great suggestions for teaching your children about colors:

1.  Teach colors through flash cards.  Flash cards contain pictures of items in various colors.  For example, if it was a picture of a bear it would be brown.  The colors are shown as they would be in the real world.  You wouldn’t want a card that shows a yellow sky or a red tree.  The colors on a flash card are very bright so this is a good place to start.  Say each color and let the child repeat after you.

2.  Kids also learn colors through food.  Foods come in a variety of vibrant colors.  When your child asks for something to eat, tell them the color of what they are eating.  Some varieties of foods, like apples and peppers, come in many colors, which also teaches the kids that objects can have more than one color.  Use the basic names for colors like red, green, blue, and so on.  Saying blue-green or orange-red may be too confusing for the kids.

3.  Use paints to teach colors.  Take a giant piece of poster board and lay it on a drop cloth.  Let the children dip their hands in the paint and create handprints on the paper.  Call out each color after they make a hand print.  Wash their little hands and start over.  Kids like to be messy so this teaching tool is both fun and educational.

4.  Take your child outside.  As you pass trees, stones, grasses and cars, identify the colors.  After you have seen a wide variety of colors, point to something and ask your child what color it is.  This exercise may be slow going at first because colors in nature don’t appear in the same hues as they do on flash cards or in a paint set.

5.  Play games with your kids that involve colors.  Use a pole with a magnet attached to a paper clip on the end of a string.  Have fish or some other shapes of objects on the floor with magnets attached to them.  When you call out a color, see if your child can pick up the pieces with that color.  If saying the name of the color doesn’t work at first, hold up a piece of paper displaying the color you want them to fish for.  Not only will they learn about colors, but also hand-to-eye coordination.

There are more games that you can teach your child.  For example, they can find the colors around the house while playing a scavenger game.  The importance of color recognition will become important when they learn about stop signs and other meanings for colors.

Teaching colors doesn’t have to be boring.  Inject a bit of fun into the process!  At a young age, kids are a blank slate.  Fill them up with good learning.

sunday night means school tomorrow. and yes, its the same feeling the second time around. once again a busy few days, a mixture of boredom and excitement. i've had: behaviour management, re, literacy planning, numeracy planning, science and design and technology.

behaviour management

this one featured a couple of unexpected things. firstly, we found out what schools we're going to be based at for the autumn/spring terms and who our mentors are. this term i'm going to a nice little infant school teaching year 3's i think - the school only has 80 kids in it and i'm going to be the only male teacher there (and no there isn't - i checked the photos on the website). i'm really looking forward to it, i was hoping for a nice one after some of the horror stories i've heard about the city schools. they have a pirate ship in the playground too.

my spring term is spent in a school that has a reputation for trouble. a specialist school for kids with behavioural/social/emotional problems e.g. one of the kids stabbed his mum - when she was pregnant. despite the fear i'm looking forward to the difference and i hope it'll make me a better teacher at the end of it. its year 4's there i think. worst comes to worst i'll shave my head and grow my beard back and intimidate the crap out of them.

the lesson itself was odd. it took shit sandwich 35 minutes to start after mentioning that 'someone' had complained about her swearing (me), she also pointed out that she feels she's not connecting with 'everyone' in the class (me). what can i say, i love rocking boats. the next few hours were okay, it was a better lesson without the swearing and although she spent far too much time talking about herself and her school stories, we did get to talk a lot about 'extreme behaviour' e.g. a kid in her class crapped his pants before school, pulled out the bookcase in the classroom and smeared his shit all over the wall. oh, and she showed us the bite mark/bruises on her arm from the day before - a 6 year girl.

re

i was looking forward to this because i have particularly strong opinions on religion and how it should be taught in schools. my feeling is, every kid should know as much about every religion as possible - ie islam, judiasm, native american spirits, thor, christianity, druids etc etc. i was looking forward to a 'heated debate', or at least ask some awkward questions. but she didn't really take questions and the curriculum is lame. it features only the big 6 (xtianity, islam, judaism, hinduism, sikhism, and the other one) and is heavily centred around xtianity. she made a point of saying that she encourages children to believe in something and doesn't discuss with kids that its okay not to believe. now this pissed a few people off, and our table was in agreement its biased. then she said we could opt out of teaching re if we felt strongly and i kinda turned off to be honest. during the activity (something about teaching kids what belonging is) our table mucked around and we were the only group that she didn't come over and talk to. our bad.

literacy planning

god this was boring (see what i did there) and badly taught by shit sandwich. in short we had to learn about how to plan our literacy lessons, but the guidance was so complicated she couldn't even explain it to us. i had my laptop so i got a couple of episodes of house and read some feeds. i'm a pro at timing my head turns away from the screen, looking straight at the lecturer and giving a few slow head nods of agreement.

numeracy planning

one of the longest afternoons of the course. the lecturer laura was nice and helpful but the content was so dull. a lot of time was spent rolling eyes across our table and looking at clocks. planning sucks ass and by all accounts we've got to do fuckloads of it. some of the lesson we played online games (about maths) and most of it was going through her exhaustive powerpoint presentation about how to plan a good lesson. it was interesting talking about marking and good techniques to encourage children. but as she admitted, she could 'talk for england'.

science/dt

another friday with ron. he was on top form and the lesson was about electricity. we spent ages playing around making circuits and understanding why a circuit will/won't work and fun things to try with kids. he also gave a very good example of how to put kids off playing around with electricity at home. towards the end of the class i was getting pretty annoyed with people messing around with buzzers though. and yes, they were doing the 'de de de-de-de, de-de-de de, deh deh". i learnt a lot again and he gave us confidence to keep a class interested in electricity.

the afternoon was one of the best lessons so far. we were playing with lego and electricity. we followed some worksheets making cogs and simple machines and then he brought out this big box of lego and asked us to build something with our machine. ours was basically a small cog to big cog thing and as soon as i saw the giant wheels in the box i knew we were going to make a car. we came up with the idea of connecting the cog to an axle. it was a great afternoon and we made a car that actually moved forward with a battery and even attached a light. the rest of the class made pretty boring things (fairground ride, windmill etc) but ours was clearly the best. we took a photo so i'll post it when i get it.

i'm meeting my mentor this week, a headteacher apparently.

”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23

Perhaps more than any other verse in the Bible are we all confronted with our need for a Savior on Judgment Day. No matter how hard we try, or how many good deeds that we do, we have all sinned in the eyes of God and do not deserve to be admitted into His Kingdom.

Unfortunately many people think that they will be able to successfully rationalize their behavior, or reason with God about why they broke His laws on that fateful day. My heart breaks at the horror, hopelessness and terror of the eternal death sentences that will be given to those souls.

God is Holy and Righteous and Just. A Just God cannot accept the excuses of a guilty sinner at the time of judgment and remain a just and honorable God. To do so would make Him lie and violate His own Word. God cannot lie.

Fortunately Jesus was sent to earth from heaven to fulfill God’s plan. (John 6:38) Every aspect of His life—from His birth as a little baby to His death on the cross—was part of God’s gift and plan for us.

God gave His Son Jesus because we urgently need to be rescued from the penalty of our sin. Without Jesus we face a life of wrath and divine condemnation- (Romans 5:18)

There is nothing that we can do ourselves to pay the penalty that God requires for our sin. We need a Savior; Jesus who has offered to pay our sin-penalty for us if we repent of our sin and make Him our Lord. (Romans 6:23) Jesus lived a sinless life, and only He is qualified and authorized by God to cleanse us and make us children of God. He became our Redeemer, and through Him is the only path to join the family of God. (Romans 5:10)

Jesus offered His own life willingly on the cross as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of those who make Him Lord. God’s fierce wrath, and an eternal death sentence are but a heartbeat away from those who reject this free and amazing gift from Jesus Christ. Do not delay, the price of sin is unimaginable…

Romans 3:23, Painting with Light, VerseVisions, 2008. Digital mixed media on canvas, 60x60 inches. Copyright © 2008 by Mark Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.

Painting With Light
This painting has been rendered with a unique new Painting with Light art technique that “paints” the picture using the selected Bible verse text as the paintbrush. You are seeing the verse above painted imperceptibly millions of times repeatedly across the canvas! God's inspiring Word is literally woven within the colors and composition of this one of a kind painting.

VerseVisions® Inspirational Art with a Promise from God!

”It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”; Isaiah 55:11 NLT

Perhaps God sent this art to you today so He could touch and encourage your heart with His very special word for you.  Large format Giclee reproductions and fine art prints of this modern Christian abstract art are available at VerseVisions.com

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."   Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1, Painting with Light, VerseVisions, 2008. Digital mixed media on canvas, 60x60 inches. Copyright © 2008 by Mark Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.

* Painting With Light
This painting has been rendered with a unique new Painting with Light art technique that “paints” the picture using the selected Bible verse text as the paintbrush. You are seeing the verse above painted imperceptibly millions of times repeatedly across the canvas! God's inspiring Word is literally woven within the colors and composition of this one of a kind painting.

VerseVisions® Inspirational Art with a Promise from God!

"It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." Isaiah 55:11 NLT

Perhaps God sent this art to you today so He could touch and encourage your heart with His very special word for you.

Visit VerseVisions.com for more large format modern abstract paintings and fine art prints by Christian artist Mark Lawrence.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."   Genesis 1:1

Genesis 1:1, Painting with Light, VerseVisions, 2008. Digital mixed media on canvas, 60x60 inches. Copyright © 2008 by Mark Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.

* Painting With Light
This painting has been rendered with a unique new Painting with Light art technique that “paints” the picture using the selected Bible verse text as the paintbrush. You are seeing the verse above painted imperceptibly millions of times repeatedly across the canvas! God's inspiring Word is literally woven within the colors and composition of this one of a kind painting.

VerseVisions® Inspirational Art with a Promise from God!

"It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it." Isaiah 55:11 NLT

Perhaps God sent this art to you today so He could touch and encourage your heart with His very special word for you.

Visit VerseVisions.com for more large format modern abstract paintings and fine art prints by Christian artist Mark Lawrence.

Do YOU feel that YOU could do something

-  when YOU see children picking rags in the morning
-  when YOU see children in slums working
-  when YOU see small children begging

At an age when they should have been going to school to study, play they are working. But then all are not so much privileged. Still these underprivileged children can be helped if YOU have the desire to do so. Many of us want to support these children but don't know how to start. Times of India has come up with an initiative "Teach India".

"Teach India is a nation-building initiative (or social initiative) that brings together children in need of education and people who can contribute a little time towards teaching them."

This initiative has been started in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Recently it was also launched in Bangalore and they got an overwhelming response from the students, professionals, housewives.

Even I registered for this initiative and opted to teach on weekends. But because of the overwhelming response and most of them being professionals, they didn't have slots left on weekends. As I still wanted to be a part of the initiative i registered for weekdays. I think its not too difficult to spare 2 hours in a week.

Teach India places you with an NGO depending on your preferences. I was placed with the NGO 'Youth for Seva' and had an introductory session with the NGO. This NGO has been started by a software engineer, who quit his job in USA, with the aim to inspire youth to volunteer to serve the community. But it was very much evident from the response at the introductory session that it was not too difficult to inspire the youth. I could see the whole family  with grandparents, parents and children coming up as volunteers. I could feel a sense of excitement in the college students to support the initiative and bring in more of their friends to contribute.

The Youth already has the inspiration to serve their community but they couldn't find opportunities. Seems the Teach India has been able to bring that opportunity as is very much evident in an engineering student's words who was present there: "We have a lot of free time in evenings and we always wanted to do something for these children but didn't actually know how to start. But with Teach India, we got a platform to fulfill our desire."

If YOU are a volunteer for Teach India, YOU just have to spare 2 hours a week for these children.

I was too skeptical with the concept of giving only 2 hours a week. It seemed to me that 2 hour was not enough for teaching them and also there will be no continuity. But this NGO cleared my doubt. They have planned to form a group of 5-6 volunteers who will teach on different days and different subjects. This seemed to be a better way.

All of YOU who want to come forward and help to change the future of these children, can volunteer for Teach India. For more details see http://www.teach.timesofindia.com/